Avenged Sevenfold talks free San Jose show

Feeling bad for having to cut out of the local date of the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar festival earlier this year, the heavily tattooed Huntington Beach metal band Avenged Sevenfold is making it up to its Bay Area fans by performing a free show on Friday at HP Pavilion in San Jose. The concert is open to everyone, whether or not they had tickets to the original Uproar date at Shoreline Amphitheatre — although actual ticket holders will be guaranteed entry and first pick of seats. We caught up with the group’s frontman M. Shadows to find out what prompted this unusual offer.

Why did you have to bail on the original date of the Uproar Festival?
M. Shadows: Unfortunately there is a whole human element to being in a band. The night before in Sacramento we played a show and it was pretty cold out. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it but I woke up the next morning without a voice. I tried all day to open it up and see if I could at least get through some of the songs, but it wasn’t going to happen. The material is just to demanding and to go out there without a speaking or singing voice would be a catastrophe of a show. The fans don’t deserve that, so it had to be postponed.

Who’s idea was it to do the free make-up show?
It was the band’s. It’s the Warped tour ethics we were raised on. We know people paid a lot of money for transportation, hotels, tickets, etc. So in the end we have to bite the bullet and take from our own pockets to make sure we can make it up to them in any way that we can. So hopefully a free show will help people to realize the we would never cancel on them unless we could not possibly perform up to standard. I hope they realize we care about the relationship we have with them.

How difficult is it to pull together a show this large without selling tickets?
Very difficult. Our booking agent and the promoters have been pulling their hair out over this. Luckily for us they have help us with the costs of the venue and all the people who have to get paid to put on a show like this. We are very lucky to have such good partners.

Why is it so important to play this show?
Like I said, we care about our fan base and the fact of the matter is we messed up. We booked a show and did not perform, so this is us letting them know we care about our fans and the Bay Area, in particular.